Then what were we bickering about ? I thought that Sony sold their consoles at a loss but you were the one to say that it was Nintendo that did it first ... 

Creatively I think it could usher in a nice new golden age for Nintendo's dev teams though ... I think Nintendo would finally allow more new IPs to be made which would invite all sorts of new ideas.

I said Nintendo should just go back to the razor blade model that they did in the past (selling cheap hardware at cost), you said Sony "invented" that, which got a bit of a chuckle from me. 

It could be much closer but that's not exactly realistic since successful handhelds are usually priced under $180 ... 

I wasn't talking about the "razor blade model" ... Its was the "loss leader model" ... 

Edit: oops it looks like I misunderstood ...

zorg1000 said: fatslob-:O said: Did you forget the negative impacts ? Anyways, other than the benefit of sharing the same pool of games it will most likely end up being a negative in the long term seeing as how systems need to be differentiated in software in order to give a selling point for one system over another. A lot of people aren't very fond of Nintendo consoles compared to their handhelds in general so this only hurts Nintendo's business in general as it only gives more incentives for people to not buy a Nintendo console. I will agree that Nintendo's handhelds are more popular than their consoles but I dont that its such a huge amount that its going to dominate the console. Wii U, Nov 2012-June 2014 has sold about 6.5 million while In the same time frame 3DS has sold about 20 million. Wii U is still $299-329 depending on bundle while 3DS is $129-199 and on top of that has a much much larger selection of games. If both devices cost the same and had the same games then I believe sales of the two would be much closer.

If they were going to cost the same, meaning they'd have essentially the same hardware, they'd be better off making it so that you could just stream the games to your tv through something like chromecast. I don't think that's what they're talking about though. Like I said before they're looking at apple as an example where you have muliple devices with different specs but all with the same software for the most part. Apple seems to do pretty well with that model.

And I dont expect Nintendo to release a $299+ console next gen. If they do go for the unified Handheld/console then a believe we could see each being sold for $199 or so. The handheld version being somewhere between Vita & Wii U and the console being somewhere between Wii U & PS4.

My bad, I thought you were assuming, like a lot of people that the portable and console would have the same specs. Will it be possible to get the wii u soc or something close to it down to power consumption levels appropriate for a handheld? Say 10 watts or so? Consider the wii u consumes something like 33 watts under load and is using a 40 nm process I believe.

phaedruss said: zorg1000 said: fatslob-:O said: Did you forget the negative impacts ? Anyways, other than the benefit of sharing the same pool of games it will most likely end up being a negative in the long term seeing as how systems need to be differentiated in software in order to give a selling point for one system over another. A lot of people aren't very fond of Nintendo consoles compared to their handhelds in general so this only hurts Nintendo's business in general as it only gives more incentives for people to not buy a Nintendo console. I will agree that Nintendo's handhelds are more popular than their consoles but I dont that its such a huge amount that its going to dominate the console. Wii U, Nov 2012-June 2014 has sold about 6.5 million while In the same time frame 3DS has sold about 20 million. Wii U is still $299-329 depending on bundle while 3DS is $129-199 and on top of that has a much much larger selection of games. If both devices cost the same and had the same games then I believe sales of the two would be much closer. If they were going to cost the same, meaning they'd have essentially the same hardware, they'd be better off making it so that you could just stream the games to your tv through something like chromecast. I don't think that's what they're talking about though. Like I said before they're looking at apple as an example where you have muliple devices with different specs but all with the same software for the most part. Apple seems to do pretty well with that model.

If u gave a handheld and console the same specs, the handheld is going to cost more so they could get away with selling a more powerful console for the same price as the handheld. Like I said in my last post, the handheld could be between Vita & Wii U while the console would be between Wii U & PS4 in terms of power. By 2016/2017 devices like that could be sold for about $199 each.

Remember this thread ? Let me rain on Soundwave's parade for a moment here while making a connection ... 

The reasons why a unified console/handheld platform won't cost the same with your expectations has to do with the fact that you'll have to end up making a bigger chip for the home system which in turn increases manufacturing costs.